For the most part I always try to avoid spoilers. I much prefer to experience something with as little prior knowledge as possible. It makes things that much more powerful when you are not expecting them. I just let the director/author take me for the ride and then do the thinking about it afterwards. This was not always the case. Back in the late nineties when the Internet was still new I ran a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine site and purposely sought out spoilers to post there.
My current anti-spoiler stance leaves me with two problems at the moment. Well the same problem twice really. What do you do about books that are also films/TV programmes? It is impossible to experience them both spoiler free. With the first series of Game of Thrones coming to an end I've been wondering about the books. I've enjoyed the TV series a lot and I'm wondering what happens next. The answers are right there to be had, but then I'd know and the TV version would have less of an impact. I think at this point I'll wait. Perhaps one day I'll read the Song of Fire and Ice books, but not for many years, after the TV version is long over.
The other problem I have is Harry Potter. Some people will find it hard to believe but I've never read the Harry Potter books nor have I seen any of the films. In all this time I've also managed to stay (mostly) spoiler free. When the books were first released it was before I'd started reading in a big way so I just ignored them really. However at this point it's one of those things which make me feel like a bad nerd for knowing nothing about. Apparently JK Rowling has been extremely resistant to ebook publishing and it's only now that a Kindle version is even being considered. So do I buy print versions? Do I wait for the Kindle version? Do I watch the films while I'm waiting? I suppose if I'm going to read and watch then the books should come first, but I'm still going to visualise Harry Potter as Daniel Radcliffe even though I've never seen the films.
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It's a good point, it's impossible to experience both a book and a film of that book, 'fresh', even if you've avoided all other spoiler sources. As far as Harry Potter goes, I would say firstly, borrow the print versions (you can have them from here any time).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a very early Potter fan, who then went off it, and got back into it later, I read some of the books first and for some of the films, I saw the film first, and I would heartily recommend reading first, for the simple reason that there's so much in the books, you've got a much better chance of figuring out what on earth is going on if you've read the book first!